Tagged: drones

With the World Drone Racing Championships taking place this weekend on the North Shore, it seemed like a good time to revisit drones. Kualoa Ranch will host pilots from 18 countries for a FPV UAV competition, while the rest of us shop for more stable airships to take great aerial photos and videos.

Though touched on in last week’s “Geek Beat” morning news segment, I devoted today’s Civil Beat “Civil Geeks” column to a deeper dive into the opportunities available to local businesses now that the FAA has finally announced its new rules for the commercial operation of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASes), or...

New rules for commercial drone use led off this week’s “Geek Beat” segment on the Hawaii News Now “Sunrise” morning show. We also touched on the growing popularity of first-person view (FPV) drone racing, including a recent competition on Maui and the upcoming Drone Worlds championships taking place at Kualoa Ranch in October....

While the media fans the flames of outrage prompted by drone pilots who are certainly behaving badly, there is some encouraging news this week for UAV enthusiasts committed to doing the right thing. Drone Services Hawaii has received its coveted Section 333 Exception from the FAA, allowing it to operate commercially. Meanwhile, the...

If California enacts one of the nation’s strictest regulations on drones, you can thank a quadcopter pilot in Hawaii. Both advocates and critics of drones across the country are watching a bill now sitting on the desk of California Gov. Jerry Brown, which would create a “no-fly zone” over private...

Dispelling any doubt that drones have gone mainstream, Honolulu is now home to a brick-and-mortar retail and service shop dedicated to the flying machines. Drones Plus Hawaii, located across the street from the Hawaii Convention Center (1695 Kapiolani Blvd.), is one of nine Drones Plus stores in the U.S. and...

Flying a drone to take pretty pictures is nice and all, but it doesn’t take long before quadcopter pilots want to take things to the next level. Drone racing is the Formula 1 sport for geeks, eschewing the silky smooth stability of UAV-based photography and videography for high-speed, agile flying....

My obsession with drones (a.k.a. quadcopters, UAVs, UASes, RPASes, yadda yadda yadda) is well documented, and I’m certainly not along among camera and gadget geeks. The images and video clips that they can capture from above can be incredible, and there are hundreds of drone videos uploaded to YouTube every month....

Like many geeks, I’m a little obsessed with drones. I still haven’t worked up the nerve to fly one, let alone buy one, but I’ve been tracking the explosion of consumer quadcopters closely. This week brings the first meeting of the Hawaii Drone Club, a new local club for multi-rotor...

As a long-time fan of the TWiT network, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in April, it was a distinct honor and pleasure to be a guest on “Padre’s Corner,” hosted by “The Digital Jesuit,” Fr. Robert Ballecer. Each week, “Padre’s Corner” features a mixed plate of discussions, the formula for which is...

It seems as if I can’t go more than a few days without writing something about drones. Things are definitely changing quickly in the UAV space. If you’re either a drone pilot or want to become one, there are a couple of notable opportunities coming up to learn more. This Friday, preeminent...

While the Federal Aviation Administration today took a big step forward in its regulation of unmanned aerial vehicles, Hawaii state lawmakers are still struggling to things out at the local level. A proposed Hawaii senate bill, SB579, would make it “unlawful for any law enforcement agency to use an unmanned...

The web is littered with videos of drone crashes. Some of them are pretty spectacular, but fortunately few of them are captured in Hawaii. But last weekend, a local quadcopter pilot created one of Honolulu’s most memorable entries. In a video posted to YouTube, we watch and listen as a DJI Phantom quadcopter loses contact...

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) just wrapped up in Las Vegas, once again generating its annual torrent of gadget headlines. Even though it seems like barely half of the products ever actually make it to market (“pricing and availability to be announced!”), it’s certainly the single largest global showcase...

Education, certification, legislation. They are the three probable paths ahead as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly but controversially called drones, continue to grow in popularity. Quadcopters were a very popular Christmas gift this year… for better or worse. Since it had been almost exactly a year since drones were the topic of...

This morning’s “Hawaii Geek Beat” segment on Hawaii News Now focused on the increasing popularity and promise of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones. While drones are frequently associated with military operations, the commercial applications of the technology are even more interesting. Over the holiday season, online retailer Amazon made headlines...